Friday, February 13, 2015

Hedge Wizard - More True Than Time Thought

A solitary magician toils away, struggling to uncover the
arcane secrets hidden within ancient tomes, alchemical substances, and strange
divinatory artifacts.Removed from the
world, he whittles away his time, often in vain, for those few brief glimpses through
the veil normality.He knows of the
haunted statues deep in the tower's catacombs, which spring to life when the
torches stop burning.He has seen
through the sphere of crystal, that lost shore of the fabled god lands, said to hold those final glimmering cities.He has spoken with the beings
that watch and weigh the affairs of mortals eternally, invisible and silent to
all but those unlucky few who manage to slip through the cracks of our dimension.He is not immortal... yet, though he wields
strange powers that will astonish and bewilder, and some incomprehensible even
to himself.

The first striking thing about this album is the incredible
cover art.It is perfect for the sound,
pure magic.It's like a mix of
illuminated manuscripts, 70's van art, and mental asylum art therapy.It has a primitive mystical ugliness that
matches the sound of the music exactly.

There seems to be a significant Burzum influence here,
particularly noticeable with the track Odd Visions, which would not sound out
of place on Dauði Baldrs.Fortunately,
Hedge Wizard is not nearly as repetitive, and seems to always switch the melody
or add another layer before a tune ever begins to overstay its welcome.It also sounds like there are some nods to
video game music here, such as Cemetary Violence, which almost sounds like it
could be a Castlevania track.In the sense
of the spirit conjured, I also find this album somewhat reminiscent of the
Isengard track, "The Halls and Chambers of Stardust the Crystallic Heavens
Open," in that it somehow manages to hold some subtle otherworldly feeling
far beyond what the simple melodies suggest on the surface.

The tightness and level of detail in the composition leads
me to believe the lo-fi aesthetic is fully intentional.There is no wasted space here.Every wrinkle contributes to the complete
vision.The recording quality is pretty
bad, but not in a way that anything is lost; it only adds to the obscure and archaic
atmosphere.

There is so much originality in this album, but it is still
true dungeon synth in the most saturated form possible.Even though the general sound is familiar,
the loving textural exploration of these synths displays fresh sonic
discoveries.They groan heavily with low
bassoon/oboe tones, often sounding far more like toys than professional
equipment.There is little noticeable
reverb, especially relative to most of the genre, and that allows the primitive
sound of the synths to shine through to very good effect, especially the
shrill, shimmering pads.Strangely
enough, the raw production creates a sort of distance, without needing the help
of reverb.It makes me pictures drifting
clouds of pixel fog surrounding and obscuring the work desk of a feared
alchemist.Only a legendary potion-maker
could distill dungeon synth so purely.